No Charges Filed In Morphine Case Drug Was Missing From Hollywood Rescue Truck

March 8, 1986|By Renee Krause, Staff Writer

HOLLYWOOD — An investigation by the Broward State Attorney`s Office into morphine missing from a Hollywood rescue vehicle ended with no criminal charges being filed.

``We have determined that the circumstances surrounding the missing morphine would make it remote, at best, to ever be able to charge anybody with the crime,`` Assistant State Attorney Martin Murphy said Friday. ``It is our recommendation that the city, more specifically the Fire Department, handle this as an administrative internal investigation.``

A pharmacist at Memorial Hospital in Hollywood reported on Jan. 21 that morphine had been replaced with water in a vial kept on a rescue truck, police said.

Hollywood police investigated the incident for five weeks before turning over the case to the State Attorney`s Office. Firefighters had invoked their Fifth Amendment rights when police tried to question them, Police Chief Richard Witt said.

Murphy said he reviewed the Police Department`s investigative file and questioned a few Hollywood firefighters before determining that he did not have enough evidence to file charges.

``Among the things we considered were the procedures and practices for the custody and care of the drugs kept in the rescue units,`` Murphy said. ``We also considered the personnel, both authorized and unauthorized, who might have had access to the drugs on the rescue units.``

Fire Chief James Ward could not be reached for comment.

Leon Davis, the fire union president, was thrilled with the news. ``It confirms what we knew all along -- that none of our firefighters were guilty,`` he said.

Davis has said that the department`s security system for the handling of drugs was lax before the morphine was discovered missing. He also has insisted that the morphine could have been switched at the Memorial Hospital pharmacy, where Hollywood rescue vehicles get their supplies.

``Upon the conclusion of this investigation, management and the union had agreed to sit down and together develop procedures that would eliminate any possibility of this happening in the future,`` Davis said. ``Naturally I hope that the meeting takes place and there is correction of the procedural problems.``